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The iPhone 4 is out today, with long lines of customers forming in front of Apple Stores around the country. The new device sports many new features, not the least being iOS4 which allows for some apps — like Internet radio apps — to operate in the background while users operate other applications. (Read more in our coverage of the iPhone 4’s announcement here).

“Here’s the thing,” writes Engadget (here) in their review of the new Apple device, “this may not be ‘true’ multitasking for a lot of us, but it amounts to multitasking for most of us.”

Count us in that “most of us” camp. We gave the new multi-tasking Pandora app for a spin and it works wonderfully. A quick double-click of the home button pulls up a menu with currently-running apps, and a swipe to the right brings up player controls to skip songs or pause the stream. When the device is locked, another double-click of the home button brings up these same player controls for quick and easy access.

Pretty slick, even for this Palm Pre user that’s been multitasking apps for a year now. NPR Music has just released a multitasking iPhone app (see story below), while AccuRadio’s multitasking app will be available in the App Store as soon as tomorrow. — MS

Pandora is positioned to become the de-facto music discovery service, writes Edison Research’s Tom Webster, due to its strong ties with Facebook and the opportunities that connection presents to social media users. He points to data from Edison’s recent study of social network users and their recall of Internet radio services — 40% of those who had used any online music service could recall Pandora (RAIN coverage here).

Those same users post to sites like Facebook “multiple times per day – which makes Pandora’s integration deal with Facebook even more significant,” writes Webster.

“Facebook and Pandora have given those content creators the tools to easily ‘like’ music and share it via Pandora links, and Pandora’s incredible top-of-mind awareness with these content creators means that it will be the go-to service for sharing those links amongst those who share the most,” he continues (here). “We may be rapdily approaching the day when ‘let me Pandora that to you’ becomes as common as ‘let me Skype you’ or ‘you can just EBay that.’ Pass the Kleenex.”

NPR Music has launched an iPhone app complete with multitasking abilities, thanks to the new iOS4 launched earlier this week. The free app includes a directory of radio streams organized by genre in addition to on-demand performances and interviews.

The New York Times, in their coverage of the new app (here), explores NPR Music’s success. The site has 1.7 million unique users and adds around 300 new pieces of content every month. “We’re playing to the reputation that we have as tastemakers,” said Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s general manager of digital media (who keynoted RAIN Summit West; find a video of his presentation here).

Stephen Colbert’s guest on last night’s episode was Pandora founder Tim Westergren. He explained the service to Colbert, who responded with some characteristic questions: “It’s my radio station, right? If it’s only my radio station, how will I know what’s cool? Is there something that tells me how cute the lead singer is?“

Colbert was also upset to find that he couldn’t find any of his own songs: “How many Grammys do I have to win to make it on to your stupid site?” He then advises Tim to “talk to Twitter” about that whole turning a profit thing.